Amazon plans to completely revamp its virtual assistant Alexa and incorporate Anthropic’s Claude AI model to improve its capabilities, with a new premium version slated to appear in October.
TakeAway Points:
- Amazon is set to overhaul its Alexa virtual assistant, integrating Anthropic’s Claude AI model to enhance its capabilities, with a new premium version scheduled to launch in October.
- According to the report, Amazon will charge users $5 to $10 each month for access to its updated, “remarkable” version of Alexa while keeping the “classic” version free.
- The upgraded, paid version of Alexa would be able to hold conversations with users and build on the questions and answers it provides.
Amazon to revamp Alexa
Amazon’s iconic virtual assistant Alexa is due for a change, and a change she will undergo with the help of the powerful large language model (LLM) built by artificial intelligence (AI) developer Anthropic.
According to a report from Reuters on Aug. 30, Alexa will receive an update this October and will be primarily powered by Anthropic’s Claude model rather than its own AI.
According to the report, this upgrade will come with a cost. Amazon will charge users $5 to $10 each month for access to its updated, “remarkable” version of Alexa while keeping the “classic” version free.
Amazon initially planned to update Alexa using AI software it developed in-house. However, sources said that output time took too long or caused Alexa to struggle for answers. A spokeswoman for Amazon said that
“When it comes to machine learning models, we start with those built by Amazon, but we have used and will continue to use a variety of different models, including the Amazon AI model Titan and future Amazon models, as well as those from partners, to build the best experience for customers.”
The upgraded, paid version of Alexa would be able to hold conversations with users and build on the questions and answers it provides. It would allow the virtual assistant to carry out advanced requests from a single prompt.
Amazon, Anthropic and AI Interactions
In March 2024, Amazon fulfilled its $4-billion investment commitment to Anthropic, solidifying its minority ownership stake in the company and its use of AWS as its cloud service provider.
However, it is not the only Big Tech company to invest in Anthropic. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, also has a $2 billion stake in the AI developer.
It has also attracted some brains from its rival AI developer OpenAI, after the latter’s co-founder John Schulman left the company to join Anthropic to focus on AI alignment and “hands-on technical work.”
All the inter-mingling within Big Tech has been a cause for concern among regulators around the world.
In August, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a probe into Amazon’s UK division over its multibillion-dollar investment into Anthropic, questioning the line between acquisition and investment.
Both Microsoft and OpenAI face similar scrutiny in Europe and the UK.
Nonetheless, in the same month, Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, discussed the future of AI on the Econ 102 podcast, speculating that AI’s future will look more like a “corporate takeover” rather than a doomed robot uprising.
